A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R.T.H. Laennec.

  • Laennec, R. T. H. (René Théophile Hyacinthe), 1781-1826.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R.T.H. Laennec. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    which several authors, ancient and modem, have fancied they discovered the cause of these diseases. It may even be asserted, that in maladies of every sort, whatever be their seat, death scarcely ever occurs without the chest becoming affected in one way or other; and that, in most cases, life does not seem in peril until the super\'ention of a congested state of the lungs, serous effusion into the pleura, or great disorder of the circulation. The brain in general becomes affected only subsequently to these changes j and frequently remains undis- turbed even to the last moment of life. However dangerous diseases of ihe chest may be, they are, nevertheless, more frequently curable than any other severe in- ternal affection. For this double reason medical men, in all ages, have been desirous of obtaining a correct diagnosis of them. Hitherto, however, their efforts have been attended by little success,—a circumstance which must necessarily result from their having confined their attention to the observation and study of the deranged functions only. From the continued operation of the same cause, we must even now confess, with Baglivi, that the diagnosis of the diseases of this cavity is more obscure than that of those of any other internal organ. Diseases of the brain, not in themselves numerous, are distin- guished, for the most part, by constant and striking symptoms; the soft and yielding walls of the abdomen allow us to exa- mine, through the medium of touch, the organs of that cavity, and thus to judge, in some measure, of their size, position, and degree of sensibility, and also, of the extraneous bodies that may be formed in them. On the other hand, the diseases of the thoracic viscera are very numerous and diversified, and yet have almost all the same class of symptoms. Of these the most common and prominent are cough, dyspnoea, and, in some, expectoration. These, of course, vary in different dis- eases ; but their variations are by no means of that determinate Vmd which can enable us to consider them as certain indica- tions of known variations in the diseases. The consequence is, that the most skilful physician who trusts to the pulse and general symptoms, is often deceived in regard to the most common and best known complaints of this cavity. Nay, I will go so far as to assert, and without fear of contradiction from those who have been long accustomed to morbid dissec- tions,—that, belore the discovery of Avenbrugger, one-half of